Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s government bonds fell for a
third day and the Finance Ministry failed to sell out an auction
of its shortest securities as investors awaited the publication
of minutes from the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

The yield on the government’s ruble debt due February 2027
rose nine basis points, or 0.09 percentage point, to 7.98
percent, the highest on a closing basis since June 26. The ruble
depreciated less than 0.1 percent to 38.0547 against the central
bank’s euro-dollar basket by 6 p.m. in Moscow, when the
regulator ceases its open market operations.

Currencies and debt from Indonesia to South Africa weakened
ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s publication today
of its July meetings as investors speculated the U.S. will pare
stimulus. Russia’s Finance Ministry sold 6.37 billion rubles
($193 million) out of 10 billion rubles of three-year notes
auctioned, snapping three sellouts of the securities.

“People are waiting for America,” Evgeny Shilenkov, head
of trading at Veles Capital in Moscow, said by phone. “Right
now it’s not the best time to buy.”

Oil in London declined by 0.3 percent to $109.79 per
barrel. The oil and natural gas industries generate about 50
percent of Russia’s government revenue.

The government has placed 37.2 billion rubles of new debt
in the first three weeks of August with an average maturity of
5.7 years compared with 68.3 billion rubles and a maturity of
8.6 years in August 2012, according to OAO Gazprombank.

‘This August is hardly an auspicious month’’ for the
Finance Ministry, which officially plans to borrow 270 billion
rubles in the third quarter, analysts including Ekaterina
Zinovyeva said in e-mailed comments.

Ruble Performs

The ruble is the 12th best performer against the dollar
among 24 emerging-market currencies in the last three months
with a 5.5 percent decline. India’s rupee has lost 13.5 percent
in the same period, while the Indonesian rupiah has weakened by
9.4 percent.

Bank Rossii has spent 369 billion rubles on market
interventions since May 29 to prevent excess volatility in the
currency. The regulator has also raised its managed floating
band for the ruble to 32.00-39.00 rubles versus the basket from
31.65-38.65 in the past two months.

The Russian currency slid 0.2 percent against the dollar to
33.0255 today and advanced 0.1 percent against the euro to
44.2045.

“If not for the central bank interventions, it’d be lower
against both the dollar and the euro,” Anton Zakharov, money
manager at OAO Promsvyazbank in Moscow, said by e-mail.